“Strategic Sales Presentations” by Jack Malcolm

Today’s blog is a book review for another colleague of North America’s Best, the sales mastermind group I’m so honored to be part of. Jack Malcolm is President of Falcon Performance Group, which is dedicated to improving personal and professional effectiveness in today’s knowledge-based economy through training and consulting in sales, influencing, and communication skills. With twenty years of training and consulting on top of ten years of corporate banking experience, he teaches a unique mix of business acumen and complex-sale strategy and skills that today’s demanding customers require from top sales professionals. Jack is a guest-post contributor of this site.

Strategic Sales Presentations is Jack’s second book (his first opus is entitled Bottom-Line Selling). On Monday October 8^th, I wrote a blog—“Outside-In Thinking”—which focused on a portion of Chapter 1 of Jack’s terrific book. I hope you’ll reread it.

When I first started reading the Introduction to Strategic Sales Presentations, I got excited when I came across Jack saying it wasn’t an accident that his turn came last on the agenda: “My turn came last on the agenda. This was not an accident, by the way; why and how I arranged this will be covered in Chapter 4.” The reason I got so excited is because my dear friend—architect Barry Thalden of Thalden, Boyd, Emery Architects—has been preaching to me for years that he considers it vital that he presents his proposal last when competing for a major hotel/casino project. I called Barry immediately and told him that he had to buy Jack’s new book today; that he was going to love it!

The book is formatted into three parts, which encompasses 17 chapters:

Part 1: PLAN AND POSITION

Chapter 1
Four Recurring Themes in Strategic Sales Presentations

Chapter 2
Capturing the Listener’s Mind: How Individuals Decide

Chapter 3
Decision Making in Organizations

Chapter 4
Shape the Conditions for Success

Part 2: CRAFT YOUR PRESENTATION

Chapter 5
Choose Your Message

Chapter 6
Structure Your Argument

Chapter 7
Support Your Main Points

Chapter 8
Polishing

Chapter 9
Add the Opening and the Close

Chapter 10
Visual Persuasion

Part 3: STAND AND DELIVER

Chapter 11
Executive Presence

Chapter 12
Dealing with Nerves

Chapter 13
Performing: From Rehearsal through the First Sixty Seconds

Chapter 14
Platform Skills

Chapter 15
Make it Interactive

Chapter 16
Effective Team Presentations

Chapter 17
How to Get Better

In my opinion, what makes Strategic Sales Presentations such an essential book for pipeline salespeople who are selling the complex sale to buying teams is this: it focuses in on the single most important aspect of selling—the presentation—in a remarkable depth that leaves nothing to chance. If you’ve always wanted to hone your presentation to the level of the masters, but were lost as to how to go about it, this is the book for you. You’ll learn how to prepare, how to craft, and how to deliver a masterful presentation.

I think I learned more about how to present the complex sale to buying teams in this book than from any other tome I’ve ever picked up, and I’ve read some great books in my time, including Neil Rackham’s Spin Selling, which I recommended in my own book. Jack Malcolm is going to take you by the hand and walk you through every aspect of how to create a dynamic sales presentation. He’s going to show you what to do and what not to do; he’s going to provide you case studies that will illustrate what to do and what not to do; you’re going to learn how your prospects think, how and why they buy, what they want to hear from you; you’re going to learn how to actually structure your presentation; that and so much more. And you’re going to learn it from a man who is uniquely qualified to present this important material to you; a man who is as good a teacher of sales as he is a salesperson.

Do yourself a huge favor—order Strategic Sales Presentations today and study it like you would a text book; you’ll be on your way to becoming a master presenter.